Hello folks,
We’re nearly to the end of 2025, and I think it’s safe to say that a year ago, we probably thought we would be enjoying a Rubber Soul 60th anniversary special deluxe edition right about now. Instead, we got a sampling of some two tracks that would’ve surely been included in this phantom release (three if you reside in the US and thought that “I’ve Just Seen A Face” should’ve been included). But no - we got what we got, and as my guest in episode 316 stated, at least one inside account suggests that a Rubber Soul SDE is not going to happen, at least anytime soon.
Which is too bad, because the assertion that’s been expressed at least as far back as George Harrison’s lifetime - that the bottom of the barrel has been scraped - has proven to be inaccurate, to say the least. Now maybe Apple, in their apathy toward giving fans what The Beatles’ legacy warrants - simply can’t be bothered with putting together packaging, fresh remixing and remastering, Kevin Howlett liner notes of flexible accuracy, and a collection of period-appropriate photos for presentation worthy of the group’s standing in the world, but it seems as though somebody is trying to slip material out there that underscores the point that there still remains fresh and worthy recordings out there that would benefit all of us to be brought out into the open, presented properly under their official auspices. Which brings us to…
NEWS
Fresh off the heels of the circulation I posted* in #58 of the “Misery” and “Loved of the Loved” demos is another one, again that would under favorable circumstances surely have been included in a Rubber Soul SDE: a 1963 demo of “What Goes On,” a completely different song (just as the early take of “Misery” featured Helen Shapiro-specific lyrics, but WGO is radically different). No matter what you think of the quality of the song, early take or finished track, it makes the point precisely of why this stuff is important as a marker of artistic progress and the group’s evolution. And that’s the point of these sets, isn't it? To get insight into the behind the scenes making-of aspect…
Jesse Pollack called it: in highlighting Paul’s ‘90s comment from Anthology about “just when you think it’s finished with The Beatles…”, something else pops up: we have this newly issued video, directed by Oliver Murray (who was also responsible for the 2023 12-minute “Now and Then” video, as well as last year’s Band Aid At 40 doc). Now, as we contended in the “Episode 9” of Anthology, where they touted this never-before-seen footage bonanza that fell short of the hype, there is some “new” footage in this FAAB short - about 90 seconds of it - that we haven’t seen before. Luckily for us who care about such things, Adambound - who’ve mentioned in this newsletter before - has collated ALL of the session footage made public into this. Still not much, and well short of what was intimated for episode 9, but perhaps our grandchildren will have the rest to look forward to when DisneyX makes an event out of it one day. Be sure to check out Adambound’s other videos on YouTube collating all known Beatle footage about all kinds of things: Candlestick to Twickenham and more.
Other video news: there’s a new film to accompany George’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” recording from 1973’s Living in the Material World album. It was directed by Finn Wolfhard, who most of us know for his portrayal of Mike on Stranger Things. You can check it out here: my take is that the depiction of George looks like it was created by someone who’d never actually seen him but had George described to them, but thematically I guess it fits the profile (if not the song per se).
Other videos: James McCartney released a new single earlier this month and the video came out this week for “Ribbons.” Not an easy thing to withstand the pressure of being the son of a musical genius and find yourself in the same line of work, but it’s commendable to produce fine material without at all sounding at all your father.
Other fathers and sons: Sean Lennon’s been talking a lot lately (but not about his apparent disdain for saxophones). He just gave a new interview to CBS News Sunday Morning; nothing hugely revelatory, least of all about anything SATB has discussed this year, but for those who enjoy such things, there’s a near-40 minute extended cut on YouTube as well. Perhaps more compelling is the short film we’ve heard about (since it won an Academy Award last year), War Is Over! It was released to YouTube earlier this year and fits the current season.
GUITAR GROUPS ARE ON THE WAY OUT…
…and apparently too are guitar makers. Höfner, manufacturer of Paul’s career-shaping bass, has filed for bankruptcy. For those keeping score, Paul’s was the second Höfner bass played by a Beatle, Stuart Sutcliffe’s H500/5 (often mistakenly referred to as the “President” model, which came later) gets the honors, and it would’ve likely been the first Höfner bass Paul got his hands on. (George and John played - briefly - Höfner Club 40 guitars; John also played a Höfner lap steel on George’s “For You Blue.”) Paul famously had two models during the Beatles years: the 1961 bass which was heard on their earliest recordings through late 1963, and then the 1963 model. It was the latter one which went on tour (bearing the 1966 set list taped to the side until removed during the Flaming Pie sessions; it was also played on the rooftop), and the former that went missing for 50+ years but was recently recovered. (For anyone wondering, Paul owns four Höfners in all.)
As for Höfner, it wouldn’t be surprising if what was keeping them afloat in recent decades was Beatle tribute bands, but that’s a finite thing and what they seem to be known for historically is being the first instrument of choice for people who, if they stuck with it, eventually moved on to other brands. Now I suspect that Sir Paul could bail out the company with pocket change found in his couch cushions but to what end? The music world has changed a ton since the company’s heyday and while it’s “very sad” (his words) to see it go the way of the bayonet and the buggy whip, it’s hard to see what might sustain them in the 21st century.
HISTORY
December 26, 1963: Capitol rush-releases “I Want To Hold Your Hand”/”I Saw Her Standing There”
The long-smoldering fires of Beatlemania that had been burning across the sea since the beginning of 1963 would at last turn to flame in the US, after a solid year of EMI’s American outlet ignoring a million-selling band. Their resistance was informed by 1) the fact that they’d failed to effectively connect their previous British acts with the American record-buying public, no matter how successful they were in the homeland and 2) Capitol’s corporate infrastructure, which assigned one Dave Dexter Jr. as gatekeeper to the overseas releases up for consideration. Dexter, a jazzer, detested rock generally and took a dislike to The Beatles immediately. He heard the harmonica sound on their early releases as old hat, despite the 1962 success of Bruce Channel’s “Hey! Baby,” a US chart-topper, followed later by Frank Ifield’s “I Remember You,” a UK #1 that had gone top five in the US charts. (Ifield also happened to be British-Australian, and following Capitol’s rejection, found success in the states on Vee-Jay.)
Brian Epstein’s patience with Capitol’s intransigence was wearing thin. The two US Beatles outlets had been the aforementioned Chicago independent label, now in financial trouble, as well as the Philly indie part owned by American Bandstand’s Dick Clark, Swan, which had issued “She Loves You” in late summer. None of these Beatles stateside releases had caused much of a ripple, owing to their limited reach and the lack of any real interest or capability by the labels of mounting a national promotional strategy. Brian saw the powerful Los Angeles-based Capitol, who had successfully scored million-selling releases from acts ranging from Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole to the Kingston Trio and the Beach Boys as key to his ambitions.
Brian went direct with his demand, reaching out to Capitol’s head, Alan Livingston. Livingston had reached his position during his second stint at the label, the first coming early in the 1950s when he ran the children’s division (creating Bozo the Clown in the process, which he later sold to Larry Harmon). Now he was back, and having failed to lure Sinatra back (who had started his own label, Reprise, in the meantime), was ready for another powerhouse act. Brian discovered that the release refusal was owed to one man - Dexter - who Livingston trusted; he admitted that he had never actually heard The Beatles himself.
Ciggie intact
Brian had some cards to play, namely The Beatles’ booking on the national TV talent showcase, The Ed Sullivan Show, which he had negotiated in November 1963. Furthermore, The Beatles were booked to play a show at Carnegie Hall on Lincoln’s birthday, 1964. Surely that would stir some interest. Last, he played their new UK single, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” over the phone to Livingston. Impressed with what he heard (which didn’t include a harmonica), he not only acquiesced to giving the band a shot, but also agreed to Brian’s insistence that an unprecedented $40,000 be budgeted for promotion. (That Brian had no leverage to force this must mean that Livingston was a true believer by the time he said yes.)
Capitol scheduled the release of the single for mid-January, thinking that it would stir interest for their upcoming February visit. But sometimes history is impacted by minor players at key moments; specifically, 14 year-old Marsha Albert and Washington DC deejay Carroll James. Both had seen the December 10 broadcast on the CBS Evening News of The Beatles as reported by Alexander Kendrick, and the attendant hysteria surrounding a November gig in Bournemouth, which included a snippet of “She Loves You.” Marsha wrote to James, suggesting he start playing this act; he in turn obtained a copy of the Parlophone release, and once he began spinning it on December 17, something was unleashed upon youthful top 40 radio listeners, now on Christmas break.
Once Capitol became aware that - in the language of another era - the song had gone viral, they issued a cease-and-desist to the radio station, but they now faced a game of Wack-a-mole - James had taped copies for deejay friends around the country and the song was being aired in powerful markets, drawing the same reaction. Facing reality, Capitol shrugged and decided that maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing: they quickly ordered pressing plants into overtime and released their version of the single (substituting on the B-side the Chuck Berry-influenced rocker from The Beatles’ debut album for the ballad “This Boy”).
What may or may not have factored into their thinking was the fact of a captive target audience having the time to absorb the new release in a way that would not have been possible had Capitol stuck to its plans, when teens were back in school. This extra build-up time ensured that the single would indeed have the momentum to land atop the US charts by January’s end, giving the group that first US number one that Paul would mis-recall years later as the reason they came to America.
“I Want To Hold Your Hand” jumped into Billboard’s Hot One Hundred ten days after release, hitting (appropriately) position 45. (That same week - January 17 - it landed in the bottommost slot of Chicago’s WLS Silver Dollar Survey.) A week later, Billboard placed it at 3, and for the February 1 chart, it had begun its seven week run at number one, displaced by “She Loves You” on the March 28 chart. The concurrent Capitol album, Meet The Beatles!, turned prevailing practice on its head by being the first parent album to outsell the single.
SATB
Coming up next (by years’ end if possible 🤞): a discussion of some tracks from the Help! album by the RPM School’s Walter Everett, Jack Petruzzelli and Cameron Greider.
FINIS
So long, Mick Abrahams of Jethro Tull and Blodwyn Pig.
All best,
RR
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